More MBA

Husky basketball practice doesn’t start for another three weeks, but there’s no sense in waiting to write about it.

Football isn’t happening.

There really aren’t any Sonics, are there?

Now people should be skeptical about this next Washington team. The Huskies haven’t been to the NCAA Tournament since 2006, haven’t had a winning record since 2007, haven’t done anything except tease people with the presence of Spencer Hawes and the supposed greatest recruiting class in school history.

There are no promises here of anything, except this latest group should be fairly entertaining. It’s Jon Brockman’s last season. It’s Isaiah Thomas’ first season. Then there’s Matthew Bryan-Amaning, the guy with the triple-overtime name. He’s the offseason story, dropping 41 in the U-20 European Championships and then coming home with some serious attitude, see today’s P-I story.

Bryan-Amaning provided glimpses of what he could do as a freshman, but more often than not he deferred. He’s seems overly determined to claim a spot and make things happen inside as a sophomore. His recent little disagreement with Jon Brockman, as chronicled in that aforementioned P-I story, was a real eye-opener, sort of a verification moment. He’s got serious attitude. The reaction was: It’s about time somebody besides Brockman showed it.

As for that 41 of his, some may think the competition, the defense, was lightweight. The kid they call MBA insists the Czech Republic was comparable to a WCC team. Not an elite Pac-10 club, but no Lehigh, either.

He enjoys going home and playing for his native Great Britain because the team regards him as one of its go-to guys. “When I play for my country in Europe, I’m one of the main guys,” he said. “That’s what they want me to do.”

Bryan-Amaning didn’t take one 3-pointer in his eight games in Europe, but has been working on this shot since he returned to Seattle. If he can hit one here and there, opponents will respect him more, he figures.

He disagrees that he came back to the UW a different player. He says he went to Europe a different player following productive spring workouts under the coaches’ supervision.

His Pac-10 expectations for a team that finished 16-17 and in the second division last year: “I want to be in the top three at least. Everybody knows what we’re capable of doing.”